Compressed Natural Gas Can Pay for School Buses

A north Florida school district is cutting its fuel expenses in half by switching from diesel fuel to natural gas. Statewide the savings could top 90 million dollars.

Leon County school buses used to burn half million gallons of diesel each year. The cost, about two million dollars a year. But the school system is cutting its per bus fuel costs in half by converting to natural gas.

It partnered with a company called Nopetro to open this fueling station in Tallahassee.

Jackie Pons is Leon County School Superintendent. "You're saving sixty an average about sixty-five hundred dollars a bus and you multiply that out you can pay for the loan and actually buy new buses".

The station is also open to the public. The State's Agriculture Commissioner, Adam Putnam, who also oversees energy issues, calls compressed natural gas or CNG the future. "Only one tenth of one percent of vehicles in America are fueled by natural gas right now. This is the biggest growth opportunity for lessening our dependence on foreign oil for vehicles.”

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